ANCIENT EARTHWORKS have consisted of a rampart and ditch, enclosing a space roughly circular, the scarp referred to taking the place of other defences on that side. The ditches and scarps to the south of the mount are possibly not part of the original plan, or may indicate the presence of such a base court as we should expect to find attached to the mount. The original entrance appears to have been from the south. Rochester : Boley Hill and Castle Works. — The limitations placed on the scope of this article forbid us to discuss at length the disputed question of the date of the construction of the earthworks on Boley Hill ; suffice it to say that the writer holds the long-accepted theory of Danish origin' to be untenable, and thinks that the southern fosse may have guarded a Celtic settlement on the promontory, though, on the whole, inclined to attribute the entire work to Norman hands. Boley Hill occupies a position close to the northern termination of a boldly projecting ridge of land, the adjoining castle works being on the extreme point, all protected on the west by the waters of the Medway and at other points by artificial earthworks. G. T. Clark says these works are on a large scale, and adds : — they seem to have been composed of an oblong space included within a ditch, which commenced near the bridge foot, and was carried eastwards for about 130 yds., when it turned to the south, and ran for about 270 yds. roughly parallel to the river, towards which it was again returned. This oblong area was sub-divided into two original parts, the southern being the smaller, by a cross ditch, and the latter part was occupied by a large flat-topped conical mound, known as Boley HiU. The northern part contains the castle. Along the east or cathedral side this ditch is in part a bold natural depression. Along the west side it is superseded by the river, here very broad, deep and rapid. The area thus included is about 7J acres. - From the great depth and width of the southern fosse or ditch it is plain that an enormous mass of chalk and earth must have been removed. Much of it was piled to form the rampart which is so conspicuous in the garden behind Satis House and the adjoining buildings, but probably more was thrown on to the surface of the enclosure to raise Boley Hill into the mount-like form it still retains, notwithstanding the havoc made by roads, buildings, and other agencies. The great southern fosse ends abruptly on the west, where it met the waters of the Medway, but on the east it was turned northward and continued north and again west till it joined the protecting tidal waters. At about 350 ft. northward from the great fosse, where the land slopes abruptly, we meet the second fosse, now guarding the southern side of Rochester castle and its bailey. In the construction of the latter fosse a portion of the Roman town wall seems to have been destroyed. Like its southern counterpart, this fosse ended at the water-edge on the west, and on the western side of the castle enclosure the Medway • Hasted, in his Hist. Kent, iv. 161, says : ' Bully Hill . . . was thrown up by the Danes in the year 885, at the time they besieged this city.' 2 Mediieval Military Architecture (1884), ii. 406.
